Nonprofit digital library with mission of 'universal access to all knowledge.' Operates the Wayback Machine (1 trillion+ web pages), Open Library, and has digitized 2+ million books. Designated as official library by California in 2007. Founded by Brewster Kahle.
In October 2024, Internet Archive suffered a significant data breach affecting 31 million users. Attackers exploited unsecured Zendesk API tokens that had been accessible in a GitLab repository for nearly two years. Exposed data included email addresses, screen names, and bcrypt password hashes. A second breach occurred via unrotated tokens after the initial attack.
In 2020, four major publishers (Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Wiley) sued Internet Archive over its Open Library lending practices. The lawsuit was triggered by the 'National Emergency Library' during COVID-19 which removed lending limits. In March 2023, the court ruled against Internet Archive on all four fair use factors. The Second Circuit affirmed in September 2024. Over 500,000 books were removed and the 'controlled digital lending' legal theory was rejected.
The Internet Archive partnered with the Wikimedia Foundation to identify and fix broken links across Wikipedia. The project has repaired more than 28 million broken links and added 4.2 million new links to books and academic papers, ensuring citations remain verifiable.
The Internet Archive operates Open Library, a wiki-editable library catalog aiming to have 'a web page for every book ever published.' The platform has over 20 million book records and lends approximately 70,000 books per day to users worldwide. The Archive has digitized over 2 million books and scans 4,300 books daily across 18 locations.
The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in 2001 to address the problem of web content vanishing. By October 2025, it reached 1 trillion archived web pages - a 'civilization-scale milestone' preserving digital history that would otherwise be lost. The service is free and used by researchers, journalists, lawyers, and the public worldwide.